It would be difficult to disagree that for one of the smaller representing populations in Australia, Indigenous Australians are at disadvantage in many areas. Areas ranging from employment, housing, justice and education among many more. There have been innumerable efforts at overcoming the disadvantages Aboriginal people have to face. For the purposes of this Essay, literature will be discussed in addressing the social inequality and disadvantage of indigenous people in relation to refining the gap in life expectancy (as a social-economic indicator) and what essential elements need to be considered for the process to work successfully.
There are contending ideas in relevant literature as to what is the cause for the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, which also gives dissimilar arguments as to how to address the issue, with one side taking a view of longevity and the other a holistic method.
It is argued that Indigenous Australians health inequalities could be narrowed with the improvement of the differences in health service access, provision and use. As the inabilities gain adequate health care due to, distance, cultural and availability barriers, thus leading to indigenous health problems being constant and prolonged (Healey 2002).
However Eades of the of the Indigenous health research unit (2000, p.468) argues ‘that a complete tactic to improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders involves understanding the close relationships between their social and economic status and their health’. This holistic view of the social and economical status of Aboriginal people being improved upon to overcome health problems, can be further reinforced through explanations of how psychological and social influences affect physical health and longevity (Wilkinson and Marmount 2003) in which it is stated ‘life expectancy is